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Halo: Infinity Part II: Control
Posted By: Frightener
Date: 21 March 2004, 10:39 PM
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John recognized the holographic display that showed the Halo surrounding the nearby planets. Several parts of the ring's geography were pointed out and unintelligible script perpetually hovered near them. The circular catwalk wrapped itself around the holograms, then extended back to the large hallway John had just came out of. He had been in a room like this before, a few weeks earlier, on Halo 04. A lot of weird stuff had happened there. John hoped to God that the Flood weren't here as well. Dozens of marines lined the catwalk, and snapped to attention as John walked by. This was the heart of their base. It had only been properly established a few minutes before. John saw several High Command Brass members conversing near the control console for the Halo. Something over there was making a lot of noise.
"What's going on?" John asked, he picked up his pace and ran toward the Brass. Whatever it was, it couldn't be too dangerous, as the High Command was standing right next to it.
"Ah, Spartan 117," the voice belonged to Admiral Preston Cole, he was standing in the huddle. "Glad you could join us, we found this little guy floating around here when we came in, we managed to get him in a steel net." The group of officers parted, revealing a small floating orb, it had a bright blue light in its center.
"I demand that you remove me from this entrapment at once!" It screamed, "You shall be brought before the Council upon their return and slaughtered for your betrayal."
John instantly recognized this as a Monitor.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on there," John lowered his weapon. "Tell me what's going on."
"The entire Alliance has failed, fallen apart, it truly has." The AI was much like 343 Guilty Spark, babbling incoherently. "First the Masters are gone, then the humans betray us, then the. . ." John cut him off.
"Slow down, please, start from the beginning." John implored.
"The Masters left on some mission, they said that me and my fellow AIs were to watch over the Alliance. . ." John interrupted again.
"No, no. Start from the beginning of, uh," John searched for the right word, "Your Master's time."
"Pardon me? We do not have time for this. You must let me go!"
"We will, once you tell us what is going on."
"Why? Is it not something you already know?" The AI was clearly confused.
John shrugged, "Tell me."
The AI's light blinked, then it settled and began speaking; "All right, fi--" It was cut off as the gargantuan doors leading into the room were opened, and a dark-haired man dressed in black uniform entered. He scowled when he saw John, and looked upon the other Brass with contempt. He had five golden bands on his sleeve, his chest was adorned with honorary medals. This man was Colonel James Ackerson.
* * * *
Linda stood atop the snowy hill. She looked out over the canyon and into the fog beyond. Even with her enhanced vision, she couldn't see more than maybe one hundred yards. Maybe the Spartan IIIs could see a little farther. Maybe. The human base existed outside of the Halo's control room. It was at the middle of a winding canyon, mostly inside the pyramidal building that housed the entrance to the control center. For roughly a mile down the canyon, the Humans had made that land into a base. Longsword fighters, Pelicans, Ravens, Warthogs, and other vehicles had been put in garages that had been dug out of the side of the canyon. They were well defended. The Covenant wouldn't use heavy ordinance in the canyon, i.e., plasma bombs from their space vessels, and a large chasm in the canyon itself helped the UNSC forces keep a tightly-knit base. Linda inspected the defenses. MAC turrets, clusters of towering Autocannon emplacements, and fixed Artillery platforms would ensure that it would take a lot more than a Covenant army to root out the humans.
Their only weakness was a large tunnel system that ran under their base. It was garrisoned by many troops, tanks, and LRVs, but it did provide relatively easy access to the base, as compared to the army on the ground level above. If the Humans were lucky, the Covenant wouldn't know that the tunnel even existed.
A dozen Scorpion Tanks were dug in, four on the "east" side, or what had been designated east, of the mountain that was the center of the base, four on the "west" side, and four on the pyramidal structure itself. They could take care of any threat up to and including three miles away. Except the fog was obscuring their vision. They would have to wait for the enemy to get closer, if it ever came at all, before firing on them.
Fleet Admiral Preston Cole was about to say something to Ackerson when his radio hissed on. It was a COMM officer from the Tyrant. "Uh, sirs, prepare for some serious action."
"What is it?" Preston Cole asked.
"We've got about a thousand Covie warships in system."
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